Whitekirk, as it may have been in 1500 (a stronghold of the
Sinclair's). As visitors pass through
the small East Lothian village of Whitekirk attention is always drawn to the
historic medieval church, originally a parish Kirk of Holyrood Abbey. People
tend to ignore the tithe barn on the hill behind as uninteresting and unhistoric!
However, appearances can be deceptive and on closer inspection what appears to
be a rather dull looking 17th century crowstepped gabled barn conceals in it's
west facing gable the basement of an earlier towerhouse raised by the Sinclair
family around 1540.

The Sinclair family had three Lothian Branches of note, the Sinclairs of
Roslin Castle and chapel in Mid Lothian, who in 1330 accompanied the 'Good Sir
James' Douglas with King Robert the Bruce's heart (1306-1329)on a pilgrimage to
the holy lands. Unfortunately they only got as far as southern Spain where both
the Sinclair's and the Douglas were killed at the battle of Teba, beside the
castle of the Star. Bruce's heart was later recovered, taken home to Scotland
and buried below the high altar of Melrose Abbey.

The second family of note were the Sinclairs of Herdmanston Castle near
Haddington, who in 1388 carried the Douglas banner to victory over the Percies
at the battle of Otterburn near Newcastle. And finally the Sinclairs of
Whitekirk.

Whitekirk castle itself was constructed on top of the foundations of pilgrims
hostels built by King James l of Scots (1406-1437) who gave the church his
personal protection, since it had become world famous because of the alleged
healing qualities of it's miraculous holy well.

In 1413 for example over 15,000 pilgrims visited the site. Over the years
many famous pilgrims traveled to Whitekirk, Black Agnes the defender of Dunbar
castle in 1338,Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (later Pope Pius ll), King James IV
and King James V who in 1537 granted the pilgrims hostels to his favourite
Oliver Sinclair who surprisingly demolished them to build his towerhouse of
Whitekirk castle. This should have upset the holy church, but since 'William
Sinclare' and 'Patrick Sinclare' served as vicars of Whitekirk church in the
1540's and probably kin to Oliver he escaped the wrath of the church and
continued to have the support of James V. Many Scots lords despised Sinclair
because of this relationship as he appeared to have the church and the King on
his side and could do no wrong.

In 1542 Oliver Sinclair marched south with James V's army to attack the west
march of England. James at the insistence of his lords remained at Lochmaben
castle as his father James IV had been killed at the battle of Flodden leading
from the front in 1513. So command would devolve to Lord Maxwell, but James did
not trust the Maxwells and gave secret orders that Oliver Sinclair assume
leadership once the army crossed into England.

As the Scots army of 10,000 crossed the marshes of the Solway Firth, they
were met and engaged by the 3,000 lancers of Sir Thomas Wharton from Carlisle
castle. During this initial indecisive skirmish Maxwell began barking out orders
forming defensive ranks. At this totally inopportune moment Sinclair
decided to announce that he was overall commander with the King's blessing, much
to the disbelief and disgust of the other Scots leaders who began brawling with
Sinclair's lackies and each other. So in one foul swoop Sinclair did more damage
than any cavalry charge by destroying what little unity and morale the Scots
held. Lacking leadership various units fought the English independently. But
over 1,000 Scots in the confusion simply surrendered resulting in a disasterous
defeat - another Flodden.

With this sad news King James a sick, broken man fled north to Falkland
Palace, where several days later he died hearing his wife had given birth to a
daughter Mary and not a son, since a son was required for these troubled times
as a figure head for the Scots lords to rally round.

In 1543 King Henry VIII (1509-1547) of England sought the infant Mary Queen
of Scots' hand in marriage to his son Prince Edward. When diplomacy and bribes
failed to bring about this union in 1544 he sent the Earl of Hereford north with
fire and sword thus the wars of the 'rough wooing' began. Whitekirk castle was
burnt along with many other Lothian castles including Roslin which was bombarded
into submission. Whitekirk castle and it's barmkin wall were later repaired by
the Sinclairs only to be burnt again by the invading English in 1548 while they
built a garrison fort at Haddington. Herdmanston castle was also seized and
garrisoned after having resisted an earlier lengthy bombardment. The Sinclairs
failed to rebuild Whitekirk castle in 1549 when the 'rough wooing ' wars ended
with the English withdrawing from Haddington.

During Cromwell's sacking of Lothian castles in 1650-51 no mention is made of
the castle as it had already, like the hostels before it, been used as a quarry
then rebuilt as a barn. The Kirk though is mentioned as being used by Cromwell
as a stable for his horses while his men attacked Tantallon castle, near North
Berwick. Surprisingly the Kirk survived these destructive times out-living the
holy well and the castle only to be burnt by the suffragettes in 1914,but was
later carefully restored.

So there is alot more to Whitekirk village than meets the eye not only did it
have a castle, a holy well and a Kirk but it also had many famous ancient
visitors, three Kings, a Pope and even Cromwell.

Whitekirk Tithe Barn: Whitekirk
tithe barn (site of the original castle) before it was rebuilt as a house. The
stump of the original tower is on the left hand side of the photo.